On our trip into Florence, as in every tour we were on, our tour guide had instructed us not to buy from the street vendors since it was illegal. If you were caught buying from them you could be ticketed. Then she said that of course if was up to us what we decided to do. While we were at the Basilica we saw many street vendors and were able to witness them evading the law. The street vendors had a square piece of fabric that held there items to sell. On each corner was a circle loop. When the vendors would see the police coming they would grab each corner and pull and the square would become a sack. When the police would leave the area they would sit there sack down, open it up again, set up their goods and begin selling again. It was fun to watch but annoying at how many there were and trying to avoid them. The ones selling purses would follow you trying to get you to purchase one. They were really annoying.
Our next stop was Ponte Vecchio, the oldest medieval bridge over the Arno River in Florence. It is one of the only bridges that still has shops built along it.
The shops security systems were a bit unique. The outside doors were made of wood with heavy medal trim. As you can see from the picture the doors could be raised or lowered to open or close the shops. They reminded us of mote bridges. They would make me a bit uneasy if I were standing underneath them. After leaving the bridge we walked along the river and came upon several posts with multiple padlocks. Tradition stated that if you and your significant other placed a padlock along the river your love would never be broken and be locked forever.
We then walked along until we we came to Palazzo Vecchio which is the town hall of Florence. In order to get to the entrance you can pass through one of the three courtyards attached to the palace. This courtyard happened to be under construction but each has unique statues and art work. There were so many street vendors and tourists in this area that it made it very difficult to walk through. You can see the palace tower at the end of the street.
Overlooking the square is a copy of Michelangelo's David statue. The other side of the square is home of Loggia dei Lanzi with many famous statues and art work.
Always moving on we then walked through many of the small streets of Florence. This walk ended at the Piazza Santa Croce. This first picture I took from the internet because as you can see from the lower picture they were getting ready for the Calcio Fiorentino. This is a game similar to football that is played the 3rd week of each June. If we had been in Florence the next week we could have watched. It is not played with pad's and helmets but bare chested and no helmet. The modern version allows tactics such as head-butting, punching, elbowing, and choking, but forbids sucker punching and kicks to the head.
Building with shops in the Piazza Santa Croce
We then headed to lunch. Each tour we had been on so far had provided lunch. As we approached this building, by the front, you would never have guessed it was a restaurant nor that it was so big inside. It was like a palace and museum all in one.
After a delicious lunch we were giving free time to shop in Florence. Florence is known for it's leather goods. The little shops were fun to wonder around in. Before we started for lunch our tour guide had instructed us on were we would meet after lunch to return to the bus and head to Pisa. At the required time everyone was at the prearranged spot except for five of our tour members. We waited and waited and waited and waited. Our tour guide's cell phone rang and it was the five members of our group. They had not listened to where the guide had told us to meet and had headed back to where the bus dropped us off. They were back at the Basilica. The cute, petite little tour guide was not happy. She told them to get a cab and where to come to meet us at the bus. We headed to the bus. A few minutes later they called and said that it was to expensive to take a cab and wanted out guide to come get them. She got us to the bus and headed off to get the others. This cost us about an hour of time. When the five finally got to the bus you can imagine how unhappy the rest of us were. We were concerned that we would not be able to make it to Pisa but on we went. From Florence it took us about an hour, maybe a little longer to get to Pisa.
Not doing enough research on the tower, we thought it was just the leaning tower in the middle of the city. Not! The city of Pisa in itself is rather large with a population of about 100,000 people, approximately 60,000 are students attending the university. There are three main buildings at the cathedral square were the tower stands. The Baptistry, the Chapel and the tower. There is also a museum and cemetery on the grounds. The three buildings are surrounded by a stone wall. In order to get to the buildings we walked through a street that was made up completely of tourist shops. Once entering the wall, the grounds were beautifully maintained. To the far right of the buildings again were tourist shops.
The first building we entered was the Baptistry. While we were there a young women came in and stood in the middle of the room. She would sing one long notes then wait and sing another long note then another. The acoustics in the building are amazing and even though she was singing one note at a time it sounded like more than one person was singing a chord. She was really singing by herself, it was just the echoes going round and round the dome of the building.
We then entered the Chapel. It is a very large and spacious building. It reminded my of Nephi's dream, a beautiful building with many worldly features. Enticing by it's beauty, wealth and what the world has to offer.
The last, but not least, structure was the Leaning Tower. It was amazing to see. We never thought that was something we we would be right next to. It was originally the bell tower for the cathedral. We were not able to go in the tower but I could not have done it even if I had wanted to. It was an amazing day!
This was our friend for the night.
1 comment:
glad this was one of your favorite days. Ross and i absolutely LOVED Florence...Firenze!
It is a beautiful city (so is Pisa) and we ate the best food in my entire life there.
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